Category Archives: Live

LIVE 071 • Green Tea (Fingerstyle Improv)

August 3, 2019Live, Open Tuningsbig island, Hawaii, Holualoa, improvisation, Ki Ho'alu, peaceful guitar music, pen D, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, shure ksm 141, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310e, tranquil songNick

“Green Tea” is a fingerstyle improvisation based on the idea of toying with certain oft used open tuning tropes and seeing how they could be morphed. Listening back, I enjoy the sound of the dreadnaught guitar I recorded it on, even though I have been using predominantly smaller bodied guitars for the last 4-5 years or so. While small bodied guitars have a great balance that is perfect for many situations, sometimes there’s just something nice about the sound of a big boomy acoustic box. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 12/14/07.

LIVE 070 • Sunny Afternoon In My Ohana (Koaloha Pineapple Soprano)

July 6, 2019Livebig island, Hawaii, Holualoa, koaloha, ksm141, peaceful ukulele music, pineapple ukulele, relaxing music, slack key ukulele, soprano ukulele, tranquil song, uke, ukulele improvNick

Today’s song from the vaults is an ukulele improvisation dubbed “Sunny Afternoon in My Ohana,” after the ohana unit where I recorded it. The unit centered on a large tile floored room with great acoustics that I kept mostly empty of furniture for recording purposes. People think of tile as producing a bright, harsh sound, but I never found the room to be that way at all. At any rate, it complemented the sound of ukulele nicely and though I only have a handful of uke recordings from that time, I recall playing uke a lot while living there. Anyway, this is one of those recordings; I hope you enjoy this music.

Recorded with a Koaloha pineapple soprano ukulele and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 3/1/08.

LIVE 069 • Kailua Bay Blues

June 7, 2019Live, Slack Keybig island, Elixir strings, Fred Kelly, Hawaii, ironman, kailua bay, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, love, peace, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, Shure KSM141, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310e, Taylor Dreadnaught guitar, Taylor guitars, thumbpicksNick

Today’s tune from the vaults is a recording of a slack key song I wrote and called “Kailua Bay Blues.” I spent a lot of time as a kid swimming in the waters of historic and majestic Kailua Bay, the waterfront area of ‘downtown’ Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. The bay is surrounded by historic residences once occupied by the Hawaiian Monarchy, hotels, restaurants, and usually someone fishing off the seawall. The area also hosts the swim and finish line for the Ironman World Championship triathlon. The waters of Kailua Bay, as well as the sky above, can have many different shades of blue – thus a double meaning for this bluesy slack key song’s title. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, 9/13/07.

LIVE 093 • Hilo Rag (Dennis Kamakahi)

May 3, 2019Live, Slack Keyblue sky guitar, dennis kamakahi, ear trumpet labs, edwina, Hawaii, Ki Ho'alu, mauna loa tuning, nick borho, peaceful guitar, relaxing guitar, Slack Key, sons of hawaii, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylonNick

Hilo Rag is a super fun tune to play from Dennis Kamakahi’s oeuvre. Better known for lyrical songs like Koke’e, Hilo Rag makes me wish I heard more of Dennis’s instrumental work. I was fortunate enough to meet Dennis and son David years ago and see them play, both on stage and in smaller back porch style jam sessions. I remember Dennis dressing sharp in his kind of urban paniolo style, complete with boots and cowboy hat. Like I say, this is such a fun song to play I can never just play it once when I’m running through songs (and will be posting an alternate take on my other channel soon). Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 065 • Pualani Slack Key (Demo, 5/16/06)

May 3, 2019Live, Slack Keybig island, Hawaii, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, open G, Slack Key, Taro Patch, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310eNick

This is a demo of a slack key song I wrote years back called “Pualani Slack Key.” Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, 5/16/06.

LIVE 096 • Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór (Taylor 912ce)

April 26, 2019Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, celtic guitar, fiddle tunes guitar, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, kona, Martin Simpson, O’Carolan songs, open tunings, Pierre Bensusan, relaxing music, Slack Key, Taylor 912ce, taylor grand concert, Tony McManus, Turlough O’CarolanNick

Here is another version of my arrangement of Si Bheag, Si Mhor (Little Fairy, Big Fairy), reportedly the first song composed by famous 17th century bard Turlough O’Carolan. This version was recorded on my 912ce, which I feel is a perfect guitar for this arrangement. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 912ce (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD Light strings) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.

LIVE 090 • Moonglow (Alternate Take)

April 5, 2019Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, open tunings, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor nylon, tranquil songNick

Here is an alternate take of Moonglow, a song I wrote years ago while sitting outside under a full moon. I’ve played it on and off for years, most always on steel string guitar. More recently I tried it on nylon and found it worked quite well – perhaps even better. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 067 • Waimea Ride (Slack Key Improvisation)

April 5, 2019Live, Slack Keybig island, Hawaii, hawaii ranch, Holualoa, kamuela, Ki Ho'alu, mauka, open g tuning, paniolo, Slack Key, Taro Patch, Taylor 310, Taylor 310e, waimea cowboyNick

Today’s song from the vaults, “Waimea Ride,” is a slack key improvisation that blossoms from a familiar type of descending figure. Though often used as part of a turnaround, this type of walk down has also been featured as a melodic device in a number of songs, most notably Leonard Kwan’s classic signature tune Opihi Moe Moe. I also recall Ozzie Kotani using it in some of his songs. Anyway, I thought the descending figure and overall pace of this improv might evoke the picture of a Paniolo riding downslope on horseback, ergo the title. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 1/11/08.

LIVE 068 • Louisville Rag

March 1, 2019Liveacoustic guitar, fingerstyle guitar, open tunings, ragtime guitar, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310e, Taylor Dreadnaught guitarNick

Here is a demo from the vaults of a song called “Louisville Rag” that I recorded a few years back. The idea behind the tune was to write an uptempo instrumental with a similar feel to the Nashville Skyline Rag from the eponymous Bob Dylan album. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310 in Louisville, Ky 9/28/12.

LIVE 079 • Moment in the Sun & Crossing the Field

October 6, 2018Livebig island, Elixir strings, Fred Kelly, Holualoa, improvisation, ksm141, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, shure ksm 141, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310e, Taylor Dreadnaught guitar, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks, tranquil songNick

“Moment in the Sun” and it’s companion song “Crossing the Field” were recorded as a pair of songs to set the stage for the second half of my “Awake Again” album. Following the dramatic strumming of “Make” that closed the first half of the album, “Moment” & “Field” frame the mellower vibe of the album’s remaining songs. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 4/20/09.

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